From the Kauppi Campus - News from the Central Office

Dear WAIMH members,

2011 is a year between our world congresses: Leipzig is past and Cape Town approaches. As before the WAIMH Office sent an email to all congress participants asking them to fill in an evaluation form in the web. The office received answers from approximately 13% of participants. The respondents were quite satisfied with the content of the congress: 80% of respondents rated the Congress as excellent or good on the whole. According to the feedback, the highlight of the Congress seemed to be the playful and humorous plenary of Michael Tomasello. Two thirds of the respondents felt there were too many events, and having to choose between so many good presentations was one of the most frequent complaints given. Even with the huge difficulties in the beginning with the new web based submission system, half of the submitters rated the system excellent or good. This indicates that we were able to correct the faults according to the constructive feedback from the submitters as we went along.

For the next WAIMH Congress in Cape Town the respondents wished to hear more about Africa, attachment, treatment, neuropsychiatry and how to make societies more infant friendly. Training courses on both assessment methods and treatment interventions, and multicultural discussions were suggested by many respondents. In short, people wished events with more interaction and discussion.

After Leipzig congress we have had time to focus on membership issues and improving the WAIMH website. The membership register has been cleaned of multiple ID´s many of the members had. Now each member should only have one ID for updating the WAIMH membership.

We have also updated the current WAIMH Affiliates’ list with www-addresses and contact emails to the WAIMH website. There is also a new subpage for the WAIMH Affiliates’ “Upcoming courses and meetings”. The office (office@waimh.org) will add affiliates’ new training and congress information on the page. There is also a new “Resources and links” page for international infant mental health congresses and trainings on the WAIMH website. So do go online and check the website from time to time see what is happening.

The preparations for the 13th World Congress in Cape Town are well on their way and the Call for Papers will be sent out soon. Finally, we want to remind you about RENEWING YOUR MEMBERSHIP FOR 2011. Go online to www.waimh.org.

Enjoy your autumn or spring – whichever season one is coming up on your side of our globe!